①Institute of Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Key Laboratory of Microwave Imaging Technology, Beijing 100190, China; ②Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100039, China; ③Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Abstract：This paper mainly analyzes the important factors that influence the accuracy of airborne differential SAR interferometry. The error induced by the processing procedure of differential SAR interferometry is first considered, and it is point out that external DEM is indispensable to achieve high accuracy in detecting and monitoring deformations of the earth’s surface. Then several factors, i.e. system parameters, coherence and atmosphere, are discussed in detail. Among these factors, baseline length and orientation play a much more crucial role, and that means high quality of motion compensations are necessary. By connecting the coherence with the accuracy of airborne SAR differential interferometry, the flight path for repeat-pass interferomtery have to be precisely controlled to meet the baseline requirement. Similar to spaceborne SAR, Airborne SAR also suffers atmosphere effect. After discussing all these factors, the mathematical expressions of the accuracy are presented for airborne differential SAR interferometry.
2010, Vol. 32 
